The Imagery of Revelation from a Processual Perspective

The Imagery of Revelation from

a Processual Perspective

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Embracing the Lamb amid Empire Horror

From Imperial Ruin and Destruction to

Transformed Lives within communities of Christ....

- R.E. Slater

Imagery in Revelation

When checking with AI on the Internet about the imagery used in Revelation it said this:

The Book of Revelation is rich with symbolic imagery, employing metaphors, similes, and allegorical narratives to convey spiritual truths and warnings.

These images often draw from the Old Testament, ancient Jewish literature, and the Hellenistic culture of the time, and are used to paint a picture of God's ultimate victory over evil and the establishment of his eternal kingdom.

Key aspects of Revelation's imagery:

• Symbolic Numbers:
• Numbers like seven (wholeness, completeness), twelve (God's people), and multiples of ten (indefinite large number) are used symbolically.

• Visual Language:
• The book is filled with visions, and the term "imagery" is widely accepted to describe its style.

• Old Testament Connections:
• Revelation reinterprets and expands on Old Testament imagery, particularly from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Daniel, in the context of the New Covenant.

• Transformation of Reality:
• The imagery aims to transform the reader's understanding of ultimate reality, encouraging faithful discipleship and action.

• Good vs. Evil:
• The book presents a cosmic conflict between good and evil, with vivid depictions of both heavenly glory and the destructive forces of evil.

• Hope and Judgment:
• Revelation combines images of judgment and destruction with those of hope and ultimate restoration.

 

  

Examples of specific imagery:

• The Lamb: Jesus is portrayed as a slain Lamb, representing sacrifice and redemption.

• The Woman and the Dragon: The woman, representing Israel or the church, is pursued by the dragon, symbolizing Satan.

• The Beasts: Beasts from Daniel's visions reappear in Revelation, symbolizing corrupt worldly powers.

• The Whore of Babylon: This figure represents the seductive and corrupting influence of sin and worldly power.

• The New Jerusalem: This city symbolizes the ultimate dwelling place of God's people, a place of peace and perfection.

• The Seven Seals, Trumpets, and Bowls: These represent judgments unleashed upon the earth, but also point to God's ultimate victory.

• The Four Horsemen: They represent conquest, war, famine, and death.

Understanding the imagery:

• The Book of Revelation is not meant to be interpreted literally, but rather symbolically.

• The imagery is intended to reveal, not conceal, spiritual truths.

• Context is crucial for understanding the meaning of the images, and modern interpretations can be aided by studying the Old Testament and other ancient Jewish texts.

• The purpose of the imagery is to exhort and encourage the reader to faithful discipleship

----

Now let's look at how the imagery in the Book of Revelation might be understood using processual language from process theology as we have been doing in the past two recent posts....

Symbols in Revelation:

A Process Theology Reflection

Introduction

The Book of Revelation is rich with imagery, much of which is drawn from the Old Testament, particularly the books of Daniel and Ezekiel. These images include depictions of the divine realm (such as the sea of glass, the heavenly temple, and the Passover lamb), descriptions of evil (including the dragon, serpent, and beasts), and symbolic representations of God's people (such as the woman clothed with the sun, the 144,000 faithful, and the Bride of Christ).

Daniel’s beasts and Ezekiel’s throne visions are recontextualized in Revelation to challenge Roman domination, casting present struggles in cosmic, theological terms. These prophets offered symbols of resistance during exile - Revelation does the same in a world shaped by imperial evil and fear.

When viewed through the lens of Process Theology, these images are not fixed dogmatic symbols but dynamic invitations - living metaphors pointing to God's ongoing relationship with the world. In process terms, Revelation offers a vision not of predetermined events but of co-creative possibilities. Each symbol becomes a moment of divine lure, a call toward becoming, transformation, and faithful response.

---

Symbolic Themes in Process Reflection

Divine Realm

• Sea of Glass – Purity and divine presence; mirrors cosmic stillness inviting participation, not separation.

• Temple – Sacred meeting place; a symbol of relational intimacy dissolving into unmediated communion (“God is the temple”).

• The Lamb – Jesus as the vulnerable center of divine love; in Jesus divine power is expressed through self-giving, not divine domination.

• Son of Man – Archetype of divine judgment through wisdom and radiance; symbolizes discernment more than wrath. Where the Lamb lures through self-giving love, the Son of Man stands as an archetype of relational truth—one who reveals where we have deviated from love’s becoming, not to punish, but to invite into deeper alignment.

• Seven Angels – Messengers of change; bearers of divine timing and transformation.

Descriptions of Evil

• The Dragon – Embodiment of chaos; resistance to divine lure and relational harmony.

• The Beasts – Institutionalized evil and domination; symbolic of empire, coercion, and disconnection from divine persuasion.

• The Serpent – Signifies primal deception and imperil man's temptation to control rather than cooperate with divine flow within creation's cosmic (divine) energy.

• Babylon – Cultural idol of excess and domination; represents collective resistance to just becoming. In process theology, Babylon symbolizes systems that ossify (become rigid and inflexible) - whether economic, political, and religious structures - that resist the lure toward justice. It is less a city than a recurring pattern of collective arrogance, pride, and resistance that denies relational becoming.

Symbolic Representations of God's People

• The Woman clothed with the sun (Rev 12) – Is the Bearer of new life and divine history; she images the faithful community of Christ across the ages; and may be described as "the faithful womb of becoming" giving birth to a future in God. She is:

• Clothed with the sun, moon under her feet, crowned with twelve stars
• Pursued by the dragon (Satan)
• Flees into the wilderness but is protected
• Gives birth to a male child who is to “rule the nations”

Process-based reading:
She symbolizes the faithful community in process - Israel, the Church, or the people of God as bearer of divine promise  (described as "the remnant of God"). She’s not static purity but a figure in motion, struggling to birth something new in history despite opposition. She is a participant in divine becoming.


• The Whore of Babylon (Rev 17): Is the Bearer of unrepentful life and works against divine history; she images the unfaithful community across the ages; and may be describes as "the false womb of decay and (imperial) coercion. This form of activity of man destroys love and devours hope. She is:

• Rides the scarlet beast with blasphemous names
• Dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and jewels
• Called “Babylon the Great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations”
• Drunk on the blood of saints and martyrs
• Eventually destroyed by the very powers she allied with

Process-based reading:
She embodies corrupt systems—political, religious, economic—that seduce through domination and false allure. Babylon is the anti-community, drawing others into false union, not true relationality. She reflects what happens when the lure of love is replaced with the lure of control.

• 144,000 – Symbol of fullness, not literal count; represents those aligned with divine becoming.

• Two Witnesses – Prophetic resistance; those who stand in the flow of divine justice against oppressive power.

• Bride of Christ – Covenant community in process; a people growing toward full communion.

Other Notable Images

• The Scroll – The unfolding of divine possibilities; each seal a revelation of becoming.

• The Four Horsemen – Cycles of consequence; reflections of disruption when divine lure is rejected. Basically, life choices my one or many are not without consequences.

• New Jerusalem – Image of healed community; the co-created future of beauty, justice, and presence. Represented as an eschatological event but seen as both a processual transformation in the present tense affecting the future tense of mankind and creation.

• Tree of Life – Enduring source of renewal; symbol of relational nourishment and eternal process.

• River of Life – Divine flow sustaining all; creative energy nurturing ongoing becoming.

Previously Discussed

• Doors – Thresholds of choice; divine invitations into deeper freedom.

• Lampstands – Communities of faithful light; bearing divine presence in the world.

• Bowls – Outpouring of stored consequence; embodiment of justice, not vengeance.

• Witnesses – Voices of processual faithfulness; present within cycles of resistance and rebirth.

• Cities – Babylon vs. New Jerusalem; collapse of (imperial or papal) coercion vs. rise of relational harmony amongst nations, peoples, tribes, clans, families and friends.

• Horsemen – Embodied process of breakdown and renewal; symbols of cosmic movement. Choices have consequences. Resistance to renewal may innure (make less sensitive) stubborn hearts and elevate acceptance towards evil.

• Trees and Rivers – Archetypes of continuity, regeneration, and divine flow.

---

Conclusion

None of these symbols are ends in themselves. In Process Theology, they are dynamic invitations—lures—not signs of inevitable fate, but openings to awakening; resistance to sinful coercion; and co-creations towards New Creation.

Revelation, read through the eyes of process, becomes less a coded calendar and more a living poem—drawing us forward into the transformation of all things by love.

To read Revelation in this way is to train the imagination toward justice. Each image becomes a spiritual practice—a lens through which we resist domination, participate in divine persuasion, and midwife the world towards what could be beginning with us and working outward.

Processual Doorways in the Book of Revelation

PROCESSUAL DOORWAYS

in the Book of Revelation

A Processual Theology of Thresholds

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Introduction

The Book of Revelation is often approached with apprehension - its apocalyptic imagery, cryptic messages, and cosmic drama can intimidate even the most earnest readers. Yet, embedded in its pages are recurring symbols of doors - symbols that invite rather than terrify, that open rather than close. These doors are not merely thresholds in a visionary narrative; they are theological invitations to step into new ways of seeing, being, and becoming.

In process theology, where all things are in dynamic relationship and unfolding through God’s ongoing call to novelty, doors serve as metaphors of transition. They represent God's gentle lure—what Alfred North Whitehead called the "initial aim"—offering each person, community, and cosmos a path forward. To pass through a door is to enter a new phase of concrescence: to bring together the past, respond to the present, and shape what will be.

This work explores the symbolism of doors in Revelation as portals of transformation. From the church in Philadelphia's open opportunity to John’s heavenly ascent, these doors reveal a pattern: God invites, we respond, and together we shape what comes next.

---

"Come, All Ye Who Will."

I. Scriptural Doorways and Processual Interpretations

1. Revelation 3:8 — An Open Door for the Church in Philadelphia

“See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut...”

• Context: Spoken to a small, faithful community.

• Meaning: A divinely ordained opportunity for mission, growth, and endurance.

• Whiteheadian Interpretation:

  • God offers an initial aim—a pathway for co-creative action.

  • The church’s faithfulness becomes the actualization of this divine lure.

2. Revelation 3:20 — The Door of the Human Heart

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock...”

• Context: Invitation to intimate relationship with the divine.

• Meaning: Relational openness to Christ.

• Process Insight: The moment of invitation is a prehension of divine nearness, where openness births transformation.

3. Revelation 4:1 — An Open Door to Heaven

“After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven...”

• Context: Marks the transition from earthly messages to cosmic vision.

• Meaning: Access to divine mysteries and the heavenly realm.

• Whiteheadian Interpretation:

  • A transition from one level of actuality to a higher dimensional perspective.

  • A lure toward a vision of divine ordering and cosmic process.

4. Revelation 21:25 — Eternal Gates of the New Jerusalem

“Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there.”

• Context: Vision of the world remade.

• Meaning: Full and open communion with God.

• Process Insight: Fulfillment of divine intention; telos (ultimate aim or goal) as a participatory welcome.

---

II. Typology of Doors in Revelation

Symbolic Door	Meaning in Revelation	Processual Insight
🔓 Open Door	Invitation to opportunity, insight, or mission	God's initial aim opened to conscious participation
🚪 Threshold Door	Liminal moment or crisis of change	A transition in becoming under tension
🔒 Closed Door	Resistance or foreclosed potential	Rejection of offered potential
💓 Heart Door	Entry to the soul, intimacy with God	Invitation to relational becoming
🌐 Heavenly Door	Apocalyptic revelation and cosmic vision	Expansion of awareness, call into divine rhythm
🧠 Cognitive Door	Shift in mental framing or worldview	Moment of rupture and reorientation
🕊️ Eternal Gate	Final telos of welcome and communion	Ongoing divine hospitality within fulfilled process

---

III. Poetic Meditation

The Door

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

I saw a door, not locked, not shut -

But open wide with silent hush.
A whisper echoed, Come and see,
As time bent down on bended knee.

A door to mission, set in stone,
For those with little strength alone.
No riches bought this threshold prize -
But faith that dared to lift its eyes.

Another knock upon the wood -
If you will open, I will come.
A heart’s own hinge, a soul’s small gate,
Where God still waits to sup and stay.

A trumpet’s voice, a higher call,
A heaven’s door revealed to all.
The throne room glows, the glassy sea -
Creation’s rhythm, wild and free.

And at the last, those golden gates
Will never close, will never wait.
No night shall fall, no door be barred -
The world remade, the gate ajar.

For every door that once we feared
Now stands transformed -
The Way is clear.

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT
August 3, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

---

Besides doors there are lampstands, bowls, temples,
angels, dragons, beasts, serpents, cities, witnesses,
horsemen, trees, and rivers, etc. What could be said
of each of these images using Process Theology?

IV. Study Guide: "Walking Through Revelation's Doors"

Each session includes:

• Scripture Focus

• Theological Reflection

• Processual Insight

• Discussion Prompts

• Spiritual Practice

Session 1: The Door of Opportunity (Rev. 3:8)

• Focus: Mission amid limitation.

• Insight: Faithfulness draws forth God’s possibilities.

• Prompts:

  • Where do you see "open doors"?

  • How do you walk through them?

Session 2: The Door of the Heart (Rev. 3:20)

• Focus: Relational nearness.

• Insight: God persuades, never coerces.

• Prompts:

  • What knocks on your heart right now?

  • What blocks your openness?

Session 3: The Door to Heaven (Rev. 4:1)

• Focus: Cosmic perspective.

• Insight: Crisis and vision often go together.

• Prompts:

  • What is your current threshold?

  • What new awareness are you being invited into?

Session 4: The Liminal Door (Crisis and Change)

• Focus: Transition and discernment.

• Insight: Becoming is often born in ambiguity.

• Prompts:

  • Reflect on a past threshold. What was transformed?

Session 5: The Ever-Open Gate (Rev. 21:25)

• Focus: Telos as communion.

• Insight: The future is participatory, not predetermined.

• Prompts:

  • How might you live now as though the gates are already open?

---

Conclusion

In the final vision of Revelation, the New Jerusalem descends, and we are told:

"Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there" (Rev. 21:25).

Here, the door becomes the gate eternal—not a barrier, but a perpetual welcome. In a world often marked by locked doors and shut hearts, Revelation offers a cosmic reversal: the future is not closed off, but ever opening. This vision is not about finality, but fidelity; not about endings, but evolution.

Through a processual lens, every door in Revelation is a divine whisper:

"Come up here..." (Rev. 4:1)

It is an eschatology not of doom but of participation—a call to step into the unfolding co-creation of heaven and earth. Whether we face personal loss, communal crisis, or global transformation, the question remains: Will we walk through the door?

In every threshold stands a choice.
In every doorway, a becoming.
And through each door,
the God of process calls -

not with coercion, but with possibility.

The doors are open.
The thresholds await.
Let us walk forward.

---

Appendix: Visual Map

Forgive the diagram... my talents with

computerized drawing is rather crude.

- res

[Rev 3:8]
     ╔══════════════════╗
     ║ 🔓 Open Door to                     ║
     ║     Mission                                 ║
     ║  (Philadelphia)                        ║
     ╚══════════════════╝
              ↓
      [Faithful Response]
              ↓
         [Spiritual Call]
              ↓
             [Rev 3:20]
     ╔══════════════════╗
     ║ 💓 Door of the    ║
     ║   Human Heart     ║
     ║  ("I stand and    ║
     ║  knock…")         ║
     ╚══════════════════╝
              ↓
        [Relational Entry]
              ↓
             [Rev 4:1]
     ╔══════════════════╗
     ║ 🌐 Door to Heaven ║
     ║  (Apocalyptic     ║
     ║   Vision)         ║
     ╚══════════════════╝
              ↓
        [Cosmic Perspective]
              ↓
           [Thresholds]
     ╔══════════════════╗
     ║ 🚪 Liminal Doors  ║
     ║  (Crisis/Choice) ║
     ╚══════════════════╝
              ↓
     [Transformation / Becoming]
              ↓
            [Rev 21:25]
     ╔══════════════════╗
     ║ 🕊️ Eternal Gates  ║
     ║   (New Jerusalem)║
     ╚══════════════════╝
              ↓
      [Full Communion with God]

Revelation Beyond Literalism: A Process-Based Reading of Apocalyptic Imagery

Traditional Christian Apocalyptic

Reimagining Christian apocalyptic using Process Theology

REVELATION BEYOND LITERALISM:

A Process-Based Reading

of Apocalyptic Imagery

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Embracing the Lamb amid Empire Horror

“The gospel is fiction when judged by the empire;

but the empire is fiction when judged by the gospel.”

- Walter Brueggemann

I. Introduction: Why Revelation Needs Reinterpretation

For generations, the Book of Revelation has been misread as a literal forecast of destruction - a final divine war plan. Especially in evangelical circles, Revelation has morphed into a horror story of rapture, wrath, and punishment. The literalist lens creates:

• A theology of fear, not freedom;
• A theology of coercion, not compassion;
• Often justifying power, empire, and exclusion in the name of a violent God.

But Revelation, when interpreted through the lens of process theology, becomes something else entirely. It becomes:

• A call to resistance against domination systems,
• A poetic vision of divine lure toward justice, and
• An open invitation to co-create a new world.

This project proposes that Revelation is not about divine violence, but divine vulnerability. Not about eschatological finality, but relational becoming. Not about destruction, but about deep unveiling - an apocalypse of love.

II. A Very Short Process-Based Summary of Revelation

Revelation is not a forecast of destruction, but a symbolic protest against empire and a call to faithful co-creation with God. It envisions love's ultimate triumph—not through violence, but through persistent, transformative presence.

III. Key Themes in a Processual Interpretation

**1. God’s Power as Persuasive, Not Coercive**

Revelation presents Christ not as a warlord but as the Lamb slain—a symbol of radical vulnerability. The power of God is not displayed through domination but through the invitation to love. The Lamb's 'victory' is not a military conquest but the triumph of relational fidelity.

**2. Symbolic Protest Against Empire**

The apocalyptic imagery is not predictive but poetic. Babylon is Rome—and every empire like it. The beast is a symbol of imperial force, economic domination, and religious manipulation. Revelation's drama urges readers to 'come out' of these systems, not to wait for their collapse.

**3. Hope Without Guaranteed Certainty**

Process theology does not teach predestined outcomes. Instead, it sees the future as open and becoming. Revelation is a vision of what could be, not what must be. The New Jerusalem is a lure—a divine possibility calling creation forward.

**4. Freedom within the Process of Redemption**

Love does not coerce. Even in judgment, Revelation does not depict God as cruel, but as one who reveals the true nature of all things. The apocalypse ('unveiling') is the peeling back of falsehoods so truth may shine—inviting transformation, not demanding it.

**5. A Call to Cosmic Renewal, Not Cosmic Erasure**

Revelation ends not with the annihilation of the earth but its healing. “Behold, I make all things new,” not all new things. The new creation is not a replacement but a renewal. The eschaton is not escape but embrace.

IV. Dialogue with Classical Views

• Literalism turns Revelation into a fear-based map. Process reads it as a vision of hope.

• Classical theism sees God's sovereignty in unilateral action. Process sees God's power in participatory becoming.

• Traditional eschatology implies divine coercion. Process insists on divine invitation.

• Evangelical frameworks lean on divine violence. Process theology emphasizes divine love.

V. Scripture as Poetic Lure

Revelation is not a newspaper headline from the future. It is a theological vision composed in apocalyptic imagery, political resistance, and pastoral urgency.

Like dreams or parables, it conveys deep truth through metaphor.

• “Every knee shall bow” is not a divine threat, but a poetic aspiration.
• The beast, the dragon, and the throne are archetypes.
• The scrolls and seals are cosmic metaphors.

To read Revelation faithfully is to read it processually, not literally.

VI. A Creed for Reading Revelation in Process

We believe the Book of Revelation is not a timetable of terror but a vision of divine love resisting empire, inviting all creation into the journey of justice, beauty, and peace.

We believe God's power is persuasion, not domination, and that the Lamb reigns not by violence, but by witness, vulnerability, and persistent love.

We believe that every image in Revelation invites us to become co-creators of a renewed world, where God makes all things new—with us, never without us.

VII. Conclusion: Apocalypse as Revelation, Not Ruin

The word "apocalypse" means unveiling, not catastrophe. In process theology, the Book of Revelation is the unveiling of what *could be* if love wins - and what happens when it is resisted.

It is not the end of the world. It is the divine lure toward the world's rebirth.

Revelation, reimagined, becomes a manifesto of hope, resistance, and transformation—one in which God calls us to join the procession of the Lamb in building the New Jerusalem (sic, a cosmic metaphor not a literal Jewish city) here and now.

Appendix A - Diagram

Classical vs. Process Readings of Revelation

See visual supplement: Revelation_Comparison_Diagram.png

The following table compares key theological elements in classical versus process readings of Revelation:

Theme	Classical Reading	Process Reading
God's Power	Coercive Sovereignty	Persuasive Love
Future Outlook	Predetermined End	Open & Becoming
Salvation	Guaranteed for Some	Hope for All
Violence	Divine Judgment & Wrath	Divine Vulnerability & Lure
Reading Method	Literal Forecast	Symbolic Protest
New Creation	Replacement	Renewal

 

Appendix B - Poem

New Heavenly Earth

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

Not by fire, nor by sword, nor sky undone,

But by the slow, burning light of a rising Son.

Nor by bright new city fallen from clouds above,

But by such a one rising in hearts awakening to love.

Nor by wrathful scroll, nor cold iron stylus -

But by Jesus doorways opening sightless hearts.

Despite beasts and wars and trumpets dread,

Leaving lambs leaderless when fear has fled.

Nor worlds remade by fierce divine decrees,

But by each divine/humane act which sets love free.

Behold, says God, all things can be made new -

And I will make them new with you too.

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT

August 3, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

Appendix C - Study Guide

A Processual Reading of Revelation

Section I: Introduction

How has a literalist reading of Revelation shaped Christian imagination in recent history?

What dangers arise from reading Revelation as a divine war manual?

Section II–III: Process-Based Vision

What does it mean to describe God's power as persuasive, not coercive?

How does reading Revelation as poetic protest shift our understanding of its symbols?

Section IV: Dialogue with Classical Views

How does process theology challenge the idea of predestined finality?

In what ways does process theology make space for human freedom and divine persistence?

Section V: Scripture as Poetic Lure

How can apocalyptic imagery be understood symbolically rather than literally?

What role does metaphor play in revealing theological truths?

Section VI: Creed

What key affirmations stand out in the creed? How might these reshape a community’s eschatology?

Section VII: Conclusion

How does reimagining the apocalypse as an unveiling of divine love affect our present engagement with the world?

What does it mean to co-create the New Jerusalem in the here and now?

Short Shorts... Christian Sloganeering, Inspiration, Revelation, & Universalism

Short Shorts... Christian Sloganeering,

Inspiration, Revelation, & Universalism

kitcshe - examples of sloganeering

What is Kitsch?

Well, it's NOT the Canadian actor Taylor Kitsch... he's cool.

Art as Kitsch

It seems religious kitsch is everywhere on social media regardless the religion or faith. Here, I ask the question whether it is useful or not? Offensive? Helpful?

I suspect the answer lies in the eyes of the beholder as it would with any display of art...

...and also what the artist wishes to communicate to us about their faith or beliefs.

Some artistic kitsch I like... It may make me laugh, cry, be cynical, or be uplifted by it.

The ones displayed below I generally don't like though I realize they are telling us to be thoughtful of how Christian behavior to be loving, just and wise, and to emissaries of Jesus wherever we go.

On Parenting

In the case of raising and teaching little kids I'd like to see less abject brainwashing and more liberty for them to be directed to ask better questions when trained up in the household of their parents.

Children are innocent souls and if they are allowed, a bit of childhood respite from the wickedness of the world would be nice to be encouraged at all times.

And when approaching the subject of God as they grow older I think sets them up for good or for ill to be worked out the rest of their lives. Hence, a bit of caution to religious parents on the energy of their beliefs. Allow children to breathe a bit. Become themselves a bit. Simply watching you will be instruction enough when the time comes to verbalize wisdom and beliefs.

I love children and always wish to error towards love, patience, broad-mindedness, and good will. We each need wisdom when it comes to children... and with that wisdom we might learn ourselves and share it with those around us.

R.E. Slater

January 18, 20224

Defined

Dictionary

Definitions from Oxford Languages

kitsch /kiCH/ 

as a noun

art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.

• "the lava lamp is an example of sixties kitsch"

as an adjective

considered to be in poor taste but appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.

• "the front room is stuffed with kitsch knickknacks, little glass and gilt ornaments"

• a tacky or lowbrow quality or condition.

KITSCH

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• This article is about the art term. For other uses, see Kitsch (disambiguation).

• "Tacky" redirects here. For other uses, see Adhesive and Tacky (song).

Kitsch (/kɪtʃ/ KITCH; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly eccentric, gratuitous or of banal taste.

The modern avant garde traditionally opposed kitsch for its melodramatic tendencies, its superficial relationship with the human condition and its naturalistic standards of beauty. In the first half of the 20th century, kitsch was used in reference to mass-produced, pop-cultural products that lacked the conceptual depth of fine art. However, since the emergence of Pop Art in the 1950s, kitsch has taken on newfound highbrow appeal, often wielded in knowingly ironic, humorous or earnest manners.

To brand visual art as "kitsch" is often still pejorative, though not exclusively. Art deemed kitsch may be enjoyed in an entirely positive and sincere manner. For example, it carries the ability to be quaint or "quirky" without being offensive on the surface, as in the Dogs Playing Poker paintings.

Along with visual art, the quality of kitsch can be used to describe works of music, literature or any other creative medium. Kitsch relates to camp, as they both incorporate irony and extravagance.

* * * * * *

Christian Beliefs

 

I had two reactions to the pictures above and below...

First the con... however I read this bit of nonsense it's still crap. If religion isn't true and gets exposed by science than let's put faith to death immediately. But if religion can survive the true truths of the universe than just maybe its metaphysic might be true too. Never be afraid to autopsy your faith. We want a living faith... not one that is dead and fighting for its zombie-self to manipulate and control our agency! - re slater

Now the pro... as people of science-and-faith we are to live in the present, not flee from difficulties... especially as presented by religious zealots defending an idolatrized faith. If prophecy is in any sense alive today as I think it is, we stand up and tell (forthtell, NOT foretell) our generations it's goods and bads, pros and cons, about itself. We don't stand mum and hope to leave disruption. Esp against sin and evil whether birthed by a church gone bad or leaders turned rotten. - re slater

* * * * * *

Bench Pressing with Rance

Subject: Universalism

Ok, warning. A good many of my friends may not want to read this. And I admit I sound pretty self-righteous, but here goes....

Today, I met and talked with a pastor who serves a non-denominational church in Alabama who only a few months ago became a persuaded Christian universalist.

He, like me in a previous life, came from the ‘free grace’ movement (names like Charles Ryrie, Zane Hodges, Bob Wilkin, etc) and in fact his church was part of that movement. We both agreed that, despite its name, it is one of the most narrow and doctrinally legalistic theological groups around. In reality, ‘grace’ is reduced to an abstraction and salvation is reduced to something like a commercial transaction. Unless you get all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted in the ‘faith vs works b.s.,’ you’re probably not saved, according to them.

There are approximately 8.1 billion people living on earth right now. So your chances of ‘going to heaven’ (as they put it) are extremely thin. Billions of people will roast forever according to these wacko beliefs.

From my research there are somewhere between 3.9 and 7.7 million Evangelical Christians in the world. That’s a mere 4-7% of the world’s billions of people who ever end up in heaven. By the time the ‘grace movement’ people get through with their nitpicking, only a fraction of those who identify as Evangelicals will be saved. How crazy is this? Plenty, if you ask me.

Evangelicals believe they are the only religious people on earth who will be saved. In general, Catholics aren’t ’really saved.’ Liberal and progressive mainline Christians arent saved. And certainly those Orthodox and Coptic Christians aren’t either. Muslims, ditto. Hindus, ditto. Buddhists, ditto.

And it gets even more depressing still since most Evangelicals believe in a literal hell. This was one of the main reasons I departed from Evangelicalism. I could no longer tolerate this narrow view of the world informed by a legalistic narrow view of the gospel.

There’s no good news at all in this kind of Christianity. It’s 99% bad news. Who could begin to love a god who is willing to create children made in his own image only to condemn billions of them forever? Not me, thank you very much.

I was schooled in this stuff, brought up in a Southern Baptist context and then trained in fundamentalist colleges as a young man. But relatively speaking, it didn’t take me long to feel increasingly uncomfortable with such nonsense.

My deconstruction began nearly 40 years ago. I haven’t de-converted from Christian faith by any means, but after all these decades my faith looks very different now than it did back then.

As my new pastor friend told me today, ‘everything looks different now. I view people differently. I see God differently. And once I understood universal salvation, I saw it everywhere in the Bible.’

I had to agree.

- Rance, 1.17.2024

Comment 1

I think you hit this spot on Rance. Might I publish it on my site? As always, I'll add a few thoughts too. You're my hero! BTW, I left one church after 27 years as I had become tired of my fellowship's incessant judgmentalism of others-not-like-themselves.

I couldn't evangelize for God, or bring converts into the church, if the church wasn't going to provide them with a nourishing, enriching fellowship as vs some imagined legalistic interpretation as to what they thought was holy or not holy.

To this day connecting divine sovereignty to power and determinism curdles my stomach. Divine sovereignty is always about divine love working with creation towards blessed, redemptive ends. Not power. Not wrath. Not hell. Not Christian inquisitions.

Thx again. - re slater

Reply: Rance - "Of course, brother."

Comment 2

by RRW

Hi Rance. I don't think you sound so much self-righteous as misinformed. I read a lot of people saying things about "Evangelicals" that aren't necessarily and definitely not universally true. I tend to distinguish Evangelical from Fundamentalist, though I recognize considerable overlap in many areas of thought.

My theological education started around Fuller Seminary (progressive? non-denominational Evangelical) and was consolidated at Regent College (also non-denominational, and very ecumenically diverse) as an Anabaptist. I suppose I'm something like a free-will baptist now, but I've always been rather iconoclastic, rejecting every post-biblical human tradition and line of thinking I could identify. I am not dogmatic about much except insofar as I am committed to biblical revelation as exemplified by apostolic teaching as represented by the canonical texts of the Old and New Covenants.

Abandon biblical revelation and you are on your own. If we are all on our own as to what truth is we are no longer thinking and acting as followers of Christ. He is our Lord; what he said as remembered and recorded by those who knew him best must be what we believe or we have departed from faith in him. If we recreate God in our own image however we see fit we are no longer fit for eternal life with him.

Universalism is one of those ways people impose their own thinking on the gospel as received. The words of Jesus are a plain refutation of that belief; eg., separating the sheep from the goats simply can’t be ignored as irrelevant here. And there is a lot more you have to excise from scripture to make the case for God’s eventual inclusion of everyone as members of His family. Someone in the comments mentioned that universalism results in monism, or in other words a deterministic world view. God would have to coercively override the will of those he created with free will by forcing them to accept him as God.

At some point our doctrines, if they are derived from scripture, have to all be correlated and coherent, otherwise they are not reasonable. I think it is not only possible but necessary for Christian teaching to be reasonable and coherent. That doesn’t mean the same as “logical” because a logical system requires more than humans are capable of (too much to explain that here, but ask if you want clarification). I think the Bible provides a coherent structure of beliefs if we mere humans don’t force it into our own distorted ways of thinking, which are then inherently incoherent and contradictory whether we realize it or not. I think that eternal conscious torment (torture!) is not a biblical doctrine. The only reasonable alternative is something like conditional immortality, with the expectation that some form of conscious and appropriate (just!) punishment is what scripture teaches, and then comes the “second death” of annihilation (the cessation of conscious existence) for the unfaithful and unbelieving.

Scripture does not teach that humans are immortal because we are created in the image of God. In fact Genesis teaches that because we have rejected the will and commandments of God we have lost the potential for immortality. The Old Covenant says we lost immortality and the New Covenant says we can regain it through faith in and obedience to Christ. People do not have God’s Spirit dwelling in them by nature; believers in Christ receive new life through the gift of Holy Spirit. Believe the Good News and you will be saved.

Reply by Rance

Richard, I have been very careful to build my faith in ultimate reconciliation for all on the Bible. A good case can be made for it, I assure you. I don’t even know where to start but simply to say it is how one reads scripture. The number of texts that explicitly state it are amazing.

Reply by RWW

Is there not an inherent conflict in proposing that the Covenant can be regained "through faith in and obedience to Christ" and "Believe the Good News and you will be saved?"

Reply by re slater

I no longer can read the bible as a "one-time" revelation. I believe the only kind of communication God provides is one that is daily and constant.

When I read the bible I read how past cultures thought about God... especially the Jewish culture. Jesus did too and had to correct Second Temple Judaism's covenantal legalisms of the day.

I feel much the same way....

God is a God of love... NOT a God of wrath and hate. That's what we do to one another when failing to love one another and creation-around-us again.

Further, Jesus revealed this loving God he called Father not with a sword but with targeted teaching on divine love and Spirit enablement.

Today, Christianity may simply expand the doctrine of inspiration to discover God never stopped talking to our hearts, minds, and souls by study, fellowship, experience, and history. 

If you wish, we might describe these events as General Inspiration as versus Special Inspiration... but when reading the bible it seems to me that all is generally inspiration and never one-on-one audible discussion except in the Christ-event when God became man.

As corollary, this would mean that the Christian commentaries, stories, and bios we read are from people moved perhaps a bit, perhaps a lot, or not at all, by the Spirit of God. To discern whether their words are from God I ask myself if God's love is at the center of the conversation and in their works. If not, they may have some things to say but I then read such beliefs in a different light as more human than divine. Some of which may be really helpful and some of which is complete rubbish.

How people think of God and act out their faith tells us a lot about the God they believe in.

For myself, divine love displays itself in acts which are healthy, healing, and redemptive.

When I read of God by those who push protestations, defensive apologies claiming biblical authority, or are generally off-putting to those around them, I read of people trying to push their idea of God on others. An idea which may be either good or bad. But love must always be the outcome as it must be the beginning and middle of any conversation.

As to the doctrine of hell it is what we do to one another rather than a place a wrathful God puts you in. Always remember, God is not hell nor is fellowship with God through Christ anything but redemption working itself out through us. And for the unbeliever, pagan, or non-Christian (my preferred term) God will always be a God to them as well despite religion or belief.

So why teach hell?

Well, that's the question isn't it... if there is no hell as the bible says there is... or as its Jewish culture in the first century may have believed; ...and certainly in what the early, middle, and late Middle Age church taught after (Catholic?) Dante's description of hell in his Divine Comedy of Hell's Inferno (published c.1321)... then what do we do with hell?

For myself, it is how we act towards one another and to nature around us. It is a description of our relationship with one another individually, familiarly, societally, and globally. Relationships are not places there are esoteric. And the pain and torture of a soul rueing life and troubles aptly describes a soul burning under the sin and evil caused.

The only place I find resolvement is in Jesus Christ's and the hell he took upon himself for us as God's sacrificial Lamb. Who served as our Atonement and Redeemer by the force of his life and death and resurrection. For without the resurrection, says the Apostle Paul, Jesus' death would not be legitimate. But with Jesus' ascension and transfiguration as the first fruits of salvation, we may find in Jesus One who will take our past, forgive it, and begin healing those of us seeking forgiveness and transformation.

Next topic...

As a former fundamentalist and later conservative evangelical I have to call my faith out. I've leaned into my original Baptist roots into Arminianism (free will) and thrown out Calvinism (divine determinacy).

Then expanded the former to incorporate and Open and Relational Theology.

And finally, I've removed the church's Westernized (Greek Hellenism) bias towards doctrine and replaced it with Whitehead's process philosophy and Cobb's process theology.

Why?

• Because I can remove the limitations of Western philosophical theology upon church doctrines and traditions. It also allows me to freely use redactive tools upon the ancient biblical text to expand its godly content and to apply a loving divinity which is never absent of us.

• Which is also why divine inspiration and revelation are important. If kept as a one-time reveal than God has bound us as God has bound God's Self. But I don't think God works this way... an imminent, intimately-near-to-us-never-to-leave-us God is always speaking, revealing, and inspiring. Some get it, many don't. Some get a bit of it while others make a "mash" of it.

• When I read inspiring novels or fiction; see illuminating art pieces, paintings, and sculptures; hear the joy filling within a good rock opera or punk rock piece; or witness architects and landscapers weaving buildings and gardens around light and sound; I behold lively works of divine inspiration such as in the American Constitution with it's Bill of Rights. Public documents which give people liberty, personal rights, freedom, justice, and equality.

• God is present and is presently doing what he can when his creation yearns to speak, be, and breathe atoning redemption and transfiguring healing to all.

Hence, at the center of love is:

• humane and humanitarian forms of social justice;

• intersectional faiths (certainly non-Christian faiths don't have Christ but in Process thought we can emphasize a redemptive center); and generally,

• behave in progressively liberating norms of behavior with one another while abiding to love and covenantal integrity with one another.

Such thoughts never rests easily upon a Westernized conservative evangelicalism as its newer, postmodernal form of progressive evangelicalism can attest. But when uplifting Reformed and Evangelical doctrinnaire into Processual Theology's realms we may liberate bad ideas of God and judgment and recover the good news which is in Jesus anew. This, to me, is invaluable.

Lastly, if God is what evangelicalism says God is - whether Calvinistic or Arminian - than such a God is not worth following. And just like ancient man's ideas are always reforming the primal questions of purpose and destiny, so too those divinely driven burdens ask of God today to reveal a better Christ and more humane faith than in times past or present. Amen

Comment 3

By CM

I think people assume all forms of universal salvation are the same. The ultimate redemption that Brad Jersak, Chris Green and others put forward is one that has been in the historical church family all along. It includes judgement and "hell" but just sees these as penultimate not the final word. Can God's Love really fail? Will Jesus be all in all of will he not?

Reply by Rance - Exactly.